Selling weapons to all sides in the middle east and then offer to negotiate peace -- I thought I was a cynic. Wow. Even better sell weapons to nuclear powers on the same subcontinent who don't life each other. Well done.

I thought the same thing. To be fair, though, I would think it's more likely that if things really blow up in the Middle East, the countries we export to in the Middle East would be united because they are fighting a common foe.

eh... while I don't disagree necessarily that the US ought to stop selling arms to certain countries... if they did of course they would only be allowing Russia, the UK, China, etc. to step in and supply the demand as they have in many other places. The United States did not create the conflict in the Middle East nor the demand for weapons there. Israel was originally armed mostly by the Czechs. Other sides got their arms from the British, the French, and the Soviets primarily. and of course these conflicts go back far far longer than 1948, back to before the United States even existed, actually.

iDon is mostly right, too. The US sees Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar as a check on the power of Iran, not Israel. They see Egypt and Turkey as playing a stabilizing role in the region contrary to Syria or Lebanon. They see Iraq as a bulwark against the expansion of ISIS, and Afghanistan and Pakistan as a check on the Taleban.

You don't have to. The US has weapons at our bases in Europe and we also maintain war reserve stocks in many European countries. We have nuclear weapons stored in Europe, too, but we don't give out the codes to detonate them.

France and the UK still have gigantic defence and aerospace industries. They're some of the biggest and most influential employers in both countries, and in the UK at least a lot of international relations is basically about propping them up.